The present invention relates to a method of using a medical laser instrument for curing dental and surgical composite materials, which provides single line laser light generation from diode pumped solid state microchips.
Cipolla discloses in U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,141 an argon laser dental instrument and method for curing dental composites. However, the laser light consists of multi-line bands of wavelength, of which some wavelength lines must be filtered, since they are not useful for the purpose of curing. Therefore, the system displays an inefficient way of producing the laser line necessary for the curing. In addition, the laser system is an argon gas laser for which a high power cooling system must be supplied in order to operate it. Furthermore, the argon gas laser requires high voltage and a high current power source. Therefore, the instrument can not be made into a compact, hand-held, self-contained unit. A large stationary unit is required to be connected to a separate hand-held portion by optic fibers and cables. Furthermore, the output of the argon laser consists of many lines of wavelength from blue to green of which only the blue line of 488 nm is useful for curing. The beam is collimated and, therefore, has constant power along the propagation length of the beam. This results in uncontrolled curing and air bubble entrapment due to the fact that the surface layers begin to cure prior to the deeper layers.
Also disclosed is a dual wavelength laser in U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,739 for dental therapy, but these are 1.06 xcexc, and 1.32 xcexc infrared wavelengths which are not useful for curing composites nor for sterilization of tissue.
Kowalyk et al. discloses a method for removing tooth decay in U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,603 using pulsed, frequency doubled lasers emitting red, green, deep blue, and UV light attenuated by some dye material. Consequently, none of wavelengths described in the patent match the maximum absorption wavelength of medical composites for curing. The device is not a compact, hand-held, self-contained instrument.
Therefore, there remains a need to provide an efficient method for laser curing of dental and surgical composite materials in a cordless, portable, self-contained, hand-held instrument which generates a single, optimum wavelength.
An object of the present invention is to provide a practical and efficient method for curing medical composites with laser light.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method of curing medical composite materials that overcomes the problems of incomplete curing of the prior art.
These and other objects are achieved in the present inventive method of use of a cordless medical laser by generating and focusing a single line wavelength laser light from a hand-held, self-contained, diode pumped, solid state laser instrument. Dental or surgical composites are cured by a focused, Q-switched, pulsed wavelength of laser light matching the optimum absorption wavelength of the composite material used. The focal point is moved through the composite from the deep layers to the surface to ensure complete curing.